


Deep in the Pines

by CatiFrey



Category: Changeling (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gift Giving, Mutual Pining, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 10:36:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17744321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatiFrey/pseuds/CatiFrey
Summary: A few snippets about William and Shelly, with a few other friends mentioned.





	1. Bearing Sacrifices

Shelly sat in front of her laptop, scrolling through crochet stitches, looking for a suitable one for a male scarf. She’d just received some new yarn the other day, a few skeins of lovely angora in several shades of brown and beige, as well as a set of new crochet hooks, so she was eager to start her new project.

Simon yawned, stretched his legs, and turned his head to look at her.

_I don’t understand why you’re in such a hurry. It’s not even December yet_ , he said.

She glanced at her cat familiar. He shifted his position, tucking his paws underneath his body, and watched her.

“You know I like to get my projects done as soon as I can.”

_But this early? It’s only past Samhain, you’ve got plenty of time._

“Yeah, but…What if somehing comes up later? Or if the stitch I pick doesn’t work out? I haven’t worked with pure angora before, I might need to start over a few times, or even get a different kind of yarn. Or–”

_Or you could just go and buy a ready thing_ , he interrupted her. If he could shrug, he probably would.

Shelly shook her head.

“No, I prefer to make it myself. Seems nicer to me, you know? More personal.”

Simon stood up, stretched, sat down again and began to clean his face and ears.

_The way I see it, he would love it either way_. He stopped what he was doing with his front right paw in midair, and glanced at her. She could hear an amused smirk in his “voice”. _Especially if it’s something from you._

Shelly blushed and turned back to her laptop to hide it.

“I-I don’t know why you would say that.”

Behind her back, the cat snorted.

_No, of course not._

She didn’t respond, her attention apparently fully back to crocheting. If he could, Simon would roll his eyes. Having finished his bath, he observed her for another couple of moments. She seemed to finally have made up her mind as she studied something carefully. Then, she picked up a skein of yarn and one of the new hooks, and proceeded to try out the stitch he chose. After a short while, she decided the hook she picked was too big aftertall, so she took a smaller one and tried again. As she worked, Simon yawned and settled down to have a nap.

Several hours later, after some interruptions and starting over a few times, Shelly finally managed to make a piece of scarf that could indicate if her plan would work out. Pretty satisfied with the result so far, she decided to work some more, until her eyes got too bleary to be able to see clearly anymore and her yawns threatened to split her head in two from ear to ear. She made a good progress, so it was fine to stop for now. Especially since it was Monday the next day. She was well aware that getting up in the morning would be hard. And Simon told her to go to sleep while slipping out to hunt late in the evening. Oh well. Had she not been so tired, Shelly’s final throughts before falling asleep would have been something about bearing sacrifices, but in her state she wasn’t able to form any coherent thoughts, so she simply nodded off.


	2. A Birthday Surprise - Spoiled?

_I still don’t understand why you can’t just give this thing to him in person._

“I want it to be a surprise, I told you already.”

Shelly walked the empty school hallway, heading for the lockers. The scarf she’d been making for William, slightly fluffy, soft, and very warm, was ready. Before wrapping it, she’d washed it carefully to make sure it smelled nice, and now it was neatly folded in a giftbox with a note on her trademark black cardstock with glittery silver lettering attached to it. She wanted to leave it in his locker in secret, as usual - for some reason he never changed the code on his lock after the first time she left him a muffin. However, in order to do that she needed to be alone. The operation itself would only take a moment - years of crocheting made her fingers nimble enough - but it wouldn’t do being caught red-handed in the act. Even if she didn’t have any bad intentions.

For this reason, she came to school much earlier than usual. Early enough to ensure there would be hardly anyone present. She took Simon with her as an extra precaution. He was supposed to go first and make sure the coast was clear. He wasn’t a big fan of this idea. In his opinion she should be able to just give the gift she’d worked so hard making to the boy she had such an obvious crush on without any unnecessary ado. He also thought she was doing it too early. From what she said, there would still be two weeks until William was supposed to open the gift. But Shelly, as usual, had a good reason - only good to her, in Simon’s opinion.

“Well, tomorrow’s the last day of school before our holiday break. When else am I going to give it to him if I can’t see him?”

Simon then suggested just going to William’s house, but Shelly just blushed and sputtered in reply. That meant “no”.

Riding on Shelly’s shoulders, the cat yawned.

_You know he’s going to immediately know it’s from you._

“Yes. But that is not the point. He wouldn’t be expecting it.”

_He wouldn’t anyway. What’s the difference?_

“Hush, you. Stop being reasonable at me.”,

_It’s my job as your familiar._

“Yeah, yeah…” Shelly stopped by the staircase and crouched so that Simon could jump off her shoulders. “Could you please just do as I asked?”

If he could, the cat would roll his eyes.

_Fine. Fine. Wait here._ He left her by the stairs and went to peek into the part of the hallway where William’s locker was. _Okay. Go ahead. I’ll wait for you here._

“Thank you,” Shelly said, passing by by his crouching form.

If she had looked at him then, she would have seen an obviously smug expression on his face. But she didn’t. Instead, she was looking at her bag while retrieving the gift from it. When she looked up, she stopped dead in her tracks.

The coast was not clear. It definitely was not. William was there, by his locker. Why was he there so early?

“SIMON!”

_What?_ She could hear smugness and amusement in his “voice”. _Hurry it up, I’m waiting._

“I swear I should have named you Loki…”

Shelly was ready to just retreat quietly for now and try again later, but right at this moment William turned and looked at her. He seemed confused to see her there.

“Shelly?”

Busted. She felt her cheeks get a little warm.

“Oh…Um…Good morning. I…um…I have something for you. Here,” she handed him the giftbox, smiling shyly.

He stared at it for a moment before taking it carefully.

“What is it?”

She smiled a little wider.

“A birthday gift.”

He seemed taken-aback.

“You…got me a birthday gift?”

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Made it, actually. But yes. I know it’s a bit early, but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it later. Any…” she choked a little and cleared her throat. “Sorry. Anyway, I hope you like it.”

William lowered his eyes and smiled - just a little bit.

“Thank you. I’m sure I will.”

“You’re very welcome. I need to get going now, but I’ll see you later.”

“Okay.”

She gave him a little wave and walked off. Simon joined her as she started to ascend the stairs on her way to the club room.

_See? That wasn’t so bad. I knew you could do it._

“Yeah…”

A big part of her felt really light right now. Happy. She got to talk to William for a while and give him her gift, and she saw him smile. Another part of her, however, felt a mighty need to hide somewhere deep in the library for a bit. And that was what she was going to do - right after getting some latte from The Murder because she was such a hurry to leave the house early she skipped her morning coffee.


	3. Sleeping Beauty

When William entered the club room some time later, having tucked the gift from Shelly away in his locker beforehand, he found her curled up on the couch and dozing. On the table there was a mug of instant coffee that she apparently made for herself but nodded off. She didn’t even remove her glasses. For a second he considered doing it for her, but decided against it. If she came to school so early (to…give him a birthday gift) it meant she didn’t sleep much last night and must’ve been tired, so he didn’t want to risk waking her up. Instead, he just removed his jacket and covered her with it, then quietly entered the library to meet Guess.

When he returned to the club room some time later, she was still sleeping. His jacket must have slid off her shoulders at some point because it wasn’t covering her anymore. Still, she was holding it in her arms, with her face partially snuggled into it. There was a small, content smile playing on her lips and she looked…so very cute. He watched her for a moment, then moved to one of the armchairs to read. There was still some time before class. Maybe she would wake up by herself. She was sleeping so sweetly, her really didn’t want to disturb her. Maybe he could just go to class and let her sleep?

It was Vilos who solved his dilemma. The librarian emerged from the library just a few minutes before first period, as William was getting ready to go. He saw Shelly dozing on the couch, William putting away the book he’d been reading, and then loudly cleared his throat. The Witch woke up with a start and sat up, looking around. Her eyes fell on smirking Vilos.

“It’s almost time for class. But, before you go, I’m sure Mr. Lee would like to get his property back,” he said with a slight mockery in his voice, then returned to the library.

Shelly looked at the thing she was still holding in her hands, noticing for the first time what it was. She handed it back to William, feeling heat spread across her face and biting her bottom lip, unable to look at him at this moment.

“Um…Thank you.”

“Don’t…don’t mention it.”

“You go on ahead. I…I need to clean this up,” she nodded at the mug with now cold coffee.

When she heard the door close behind him, she took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. Then she downed the coffee in one swallow, washed the mug and put it away. She patted down her hair, straightened her outfit, grabbed her bag and was good to go. She didn’t expect him to be still around when she was done. But, as it turned out as she came out of the club room, he was there, standing by the stairs, waiting for her.


	4. Cleaning the Clubroom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Several weeks after Shelly gave William an early birthday gift, the two of them clean the clubroom together.

Shelly and William were cleaning the club room together. The meeting ended a few minutes before and all other members already left. According to the schedule, it was Shelly’s turn to straighten up the room, but she didn’t decline when William offered to help. Ally and Nora looked at each other then and proceeded to quickly herd everyone out. Shelly pretended not to notice the grin Ally gave her.

As they worked together, William and Shelly spoke little. She didn’t mind, simply enjoying the company and being grateful for the help. With William’s abilities it wasn’t like talking while cleaning was necessary. He would do anything anything she thought needed be done. The first time it happened was a bit unexpected and they ended up bumping their heads together. He looked a bit guilty about that, but she assured him it wasn’t a problem. After that, they managed to work out a system and cleaning proceeded smoothly.

“Well, that should be all,” Shelly looked around the club room. Everything seemed in order. She smiled at William. “Thank you for your help.”

He seemed to have something on his mind.

“Y…You’re welcome. Um…Shelly?” he started while she was putting her scarf and coat on.

“Hmm?” She looked up at him.

William averted his eyes, looking nervous. Then, he took out a small giftbox out of his pocket. He handed it to her.

“Um…Th-this is for you. I saw it the other day and…and thought you might like it.”

Surprised, Shelly took the box carefully. Well, she certainly did not expect that. She stared at it for a moment. A small smile formed on her lips.

“Can I open it now?”

“Of…Um, of course.”

Shelly sat down in one of the armchairs, placing the box in her lap, untied the ribbon and took the lid off. William took a seat opposite of her and watched. Her eyes went wide while one of her hands moved up to cover her mouth.

“William…this is gorgeous,” she whispered, picking and raising the contents up to her eyes to take a better look. “Thank you so much, I love it!”

It was a fancy beaded bookmark, sparkling in the lamp’s light. She glanced at him. William was smiling, looking at her, then he looked down again when their eyes met.

“I’m glad to hear it.”

She set the bookmark back in the box and replaced the lid. Then, she put it in her coat’s pocket, along with the ribbon.

“This is the nicest thing. You shouldn’t have.”

“I…I wanted to.”

Before he could react in any way, she quickly leaned forward and lightly brushed his cheek with her lips. Then she was out the door, her own cheeks hot and blushing, leaving him wide-eyed and tomato red in the face.


	5. Stranded

It took several minutes for William’s brain to finally process what just happened after Shelly left the clubroom ( _She…kissed him?_ ), so when he finally emerged from the room himself, he expected her to be long gone. Instead, to his surprise, he found her standing on the stairs, looking out the window. The school seemed to be otherwise empty, everyone else had long gone home.

“Sh…Shelly?”

She blinked and turned to look at him. With that questioning expression on his face and slightly furrowed eyebrows he resembled a confused puppy. So cute. She smiled at him.

“Seems like…we’re going to have a snow day tomorrow,” she said, glancing back at the window.

William followed her gaze and, sure enough, it was snowing heavily outside. And since neither of them had a car, it meant they were stranded until it stops. Even if they did, it wouldn’t be safe to drive in such weather. They could only hope it would pass soon. Shelly didn’t particularly mind spending some more time with William - not at all in fact - but she wasn’t looking forward to walking home through deep snow or staying the night at school. And most probably - neither did he.

But for now, all they could do was to return to the clubroom and inform their families they would be late. They looked at each other, obviously thinking the same.

“Come on,” she said softly, taking his hand and proceeding in the room’s direction. “We’ll be more confortable in the club.”

William followed her obediently, his brain once again trying to process what was happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And what happens next? Well...now we know that they wouldn't really be stranded at school because they can just leave through Solis Court. But this entire series was first written long before the game's release and I had to omit some things in order to avoid spoilers. And then I never bothered to change it.


End file.
